Introduction

In the last decade European private law has firmly established itself as a new field of academic study: with its own professorial chairs, academic journals, annual conferences and – most importantly – its own debate, European private law has turned into a real ‘industry’. Whereas for at least the last 200 years, private law was essentially a national topic, often dealing with the intricacies of national statutory provisions and case law, increasing Europeanisation has profoundly changed this, leading to a whole new and highly international field of study. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the relationship between this field and the much older discipline of comparative law. Although it is often assumed that there is a close relationship between the two fields, it is not very clear exactly what this relationship consists of. At first sight, one is inclined to say that comparison among the twenty-eight European jurisdictions is the essential tool for establishing a uniform private law for Europe. However, careful scrutiny of the European legislation in place and of the reasoning of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) may reveal a more nuanced picture.

This chapter is structured as follows. First, it is helpful to consider the relationship between legal harmonisation and the comparative method in general (section II). This allows us to look in more detail at the various ways in which the comparative method plays a role in European private law: in harmonisation through European legislation (section III); in the case law of the ECJ (section IV); and in legal scholarship (section V). Section VI contains some concluding remarks.